Why are you yelling? just another way I'm a still a bit culturally aloof

This morning, I attended the usual Friday breakfast with the whole Teach For Armenia team. As the twenty-something of us piled around the conference room table, we ogled the chocolatey croissants, coffee cake, fruit, and pot of steamy coffee. I will start eating healthy at lunch. I will. I will. I will. Each week, the team who brings breakfast also identifies a topic for conversation. Today, we discussed the ideal candidate for the programme since Recruitment, Selection and Matriculation hosted and are in the midst of recruitment season.
In Armenia, and throughout the Caucasus region I'm told, it is customary for conversations and debates to quickly become shouting matches. As one of the few Americans in the room at this morning's breakfast, I noticed how comparably comfortable most everyone else in the room was with the conversation as, from my perspective, it escalated into an argument. It wasn't an argument though. My colleagues were debating about a new requirement of our fellows. They are passionate and entirely dedicated to positive outcomes for the students we serve. They simply show this by sharing their perspective at a higher volume.
The energy of the discourse here is incredibly inspiring, but to be frank, I was mightily overwhelmed in the moment. Every so often, I insert myself to summarise the shouting and invite a quieter colleague to share. It isn't clear if this is helpful, distracting, or just a mouse squeak between lion roars.

A Tuesday post from Tumo

Teach For Armenia's office is in the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies. The center is home to several organisations that align to their core work of giving "teens the tools necessary to succeed in the modern digital world." I'm writing today's entry from our office here!
Today, Anush (HR Director) facilitated an exciting conversation about employee and manager competencies with the TFA Senior Leadership Team. The outcomes were really interesting. We found a lot of alignment around expectations for employees, but there is still work to do to unify the direction for management competencies. I learned some great tactics for steering a brainstorming conversation towards a bit of consensus. It isn't part of my core work here, but I'll be supporting Anush as she lays out the performance management strategy including our competency framework. The opportunity for professional development is incredible! Of course, a lot of my core work will need to closely align to that future state she's designing too.

Slow Saturday

Right now, I am laying on Narek's couch in cosy tights and a Hogwarts jumper. At this exact moment, I'm writing here but otherwise, I've been browsing Instagram and reading for book club (super behind - sorry y'all). Occasionally, Narek's housekeeper Karina calls me over to the kitchen for a quick demonstration about the next step in her chicken soup recipe. She explains it in Armenian and slowly walks through what needs doing. I'll share the recipe if I figure it out!

Karina is also bopping around, dusting and organising. She will be here all day on Saturday and comes again on Wednesdays while Narek and I are at work to make another meal and bop around some more I imagine. She is lovely.

Later today, I'll go on a walking tour of Yerevan. It is only 5k, but will take three hours so I imagine it will be more talking than walking. Besides some cooking instruction here and there and the tour, it is a much-needed slow Saturday for me here in Yerevan.

All my love,
Jess

Soup in progress - I wish I could share the smell with you!! Mmm

Three years at Teach First!

It is my Teach First birthday! The past three years have been pivotal for me professionally. I can't believe I only started as a Human Resources and Governance, Legal, & Compliance Coordinator in 2015! From early days of working out what's office culture versus what's British culture to my current work abroad, I'm finally feeling that I'm in the midst of an actual career. Is this what growing up is? Being in the midst of something that always felt far, far away? Maybe. I like this midst feeling.
I've also gotta call out how it wasn't until I joined Teach First that London felt like home. My family in London is made up of so many beautiful humans I met at work or through someone at work. Sometimes Kevin and I joke that it is even a bit annoying that we have more than one country of pals we'll always want to visit and cheer on for their major events. (Kidding, of course.)

Anyways, here are heaps of pictures of lots (but not all) of those amazing peoples. ❤

First night off

Wow. What an incredibly busy couple days - both at and outside work. I'm loving it, but am still a bit jet-lagged. I hope some extra sleep tonight will set me up for a less yawn-riddled day tomorrow! Outside work, I've had dinner and drinks with colleagues, walked around with Narek, and ran errands to get myself set-up. Everyone is really welcoming and Yerevan is lovely. I already want to come back in the spring or autumn! Tonight though, I've been laying in bed looking at flights for Kevin's visit and our weekend meet-up (location TBD). The low-key evening was much needed.

The days have been busy with initial planning, setting up my objectives, and moving swiftly on some key pieces of work! Today I also had a (very brief) briefing session with Lou from Teach First. I am going to be on the externship panel for our internal Careers Week in February. It will be neat to share a little about my experience while I'm in Armenia on the actual externship. Also, I've never been on a panel before! How fun!

Below are my objectives:

1. Configure, test, and launch an HR Information System
2. Design and document processes from recruitment/selection through probation
3. Create a foundational policy library (produce and support colleagues to produce prioritised policies); also, design procedure for policy upkeep
4. Design onboarding experience for new starters and their managers including tools, templates, and documentation
5. Engage in the Teach For Armenia mission through school visits, meaningful discussions about the context in Armenia, and collaborative learning sessions about all sorts (from performance evaluation to co-teaching models to governance structures)

The mission:

Our mission is to catalyze a nationwide movement of impact-driven leaders expanding educational opportunity to all children in Armenia.

Մեր առաքելությունն է նվիրյալ առաջնորդների համազգային շարժման խթանումը՝ հանուն Հայաստանի բոլոր երեխաների կրթական հնարավորությունների ընդլայնման:

Good night, Mom and Kevin. :)

Entrance to the office

Sucuk

Quick post from the Teach For Armenia office so I remember to tell y'all about this stellar sweet my colleague Menua shared with me called sucuk - look at the bottom of the Wikipedia article for the candy version of sujuk (a type of sausage... makes sense because the candy is sausage-shaped). I loved having a bit of sucuk after my lunch with Grigori and Manuk in the downstairs cafeteria, which I'm assured I'll grow tired of after awhile! OK - back to work! :)

First day of work (at my externship)

Today was a long first day! We worked from 9:00-19:00 and we accomplished heaps. I spent a lot of time setting myself up, meeting colleagues, and mapping out some quick wins. If I'm honest, it was absolutely exhausting but I'll attribute a bit of that to the jet lag. Speaking of which, I need to sleep so will keep this entry short.

Two lessons learned today:

1. Some things that take ages in London can be done in less than a day here (your first day, even) - today I worked on something I've been doing since summertime at Teach First and I will likely be finished by close-of-play tomorrow
2. Start-up culture feels dramatically different (obvious when I type it out) - in some ways, I feel like the start-up vibe is even more of a culture-shock than being in West Asia

Tonight, my colleague Kristyn took me to Araks Restaurant which was delicious. We shared Toshka which Kristyn aptly described as a cheeseburger quesadilla; I had Shish Tawook as a main which was a flavourful seasoned chicken with fries and garlic aioli. Check out that Toshka link to the Syrian foodie blog - you'll be drooling on your keyboard!

Later, Narek and I went exploring to do some errands and I took some photos along the way!

An alley near the grocery store

Also in that alley near the grocery store

Republic Square (only part of it!)

Northern Avenue holiday lights still up

Hovhannes Tumanyan in front of Yerevan Opera Theatre

Day One in Yerevan, Armenia

My eyelids are heavy, but my suitcase is finally light. After two ~three hour red-eye flights, I arrived to Zvartnots International Airport to learn that my suitcase was still in Moscow. Fortunately, they delivered it to my flatmate & host Narek's flat during dinner (we had some delicious leftover lentil soup and chicken). Today I spent a lot of time unpacking and was happily surprised to meet several of Narek's pals. Friends played on Netflix in the background basically all day, which made for a perfect, cosy, lazy Sunday.

It's been a long time since I blogged, but the plan is to stay up-to-date for the duration of this trip!

Oh, some folks have asked for some context!
I start my externship with Teach For Armenia tomorrow. An externship is an opportunity offered to Teach First high performing employees; it will give me the time to exchange knowledge, skills, and ideas within the Teach For All network. It also gives me the opportunity to tackle educational inequality in another part of the world. I'll know heaps more about my project when I start so will share more about that later!

If I've done it right, this should be a video of the view from my two-month home in central Yerevan!

Why travel?

I was born and raised in Lafayette, Indiana. Nothing has made me appreciate and love my hometown more than being away from it, but when I was fourteen, I sought a change of scenery. If Mary-Kate and Ashley could see the world, so could I. My first time travelling outside the United States, I explored Australia and New Zealand on a trip arranged by the People to People Student Ambassador Program whose motto is to "promote peace through understanding." Those twenty days in the summer of 2005 filled me with curiosity, courage, and consciousness, which are-in my opinion-the three main reasons travel is an indispensable life experience.

Curiosity.

While sightseeing in Rome on my honeymoon, I observed a father explaining to his son that Romans used to fill the Colosseum with water to simulate sea battles. The boy immediately questioned the logistics of it and as my husband and I walked past, I could hear his dad trying to satisfy the child's thirst for more knowledge. I have found that travel incites enthusiasm and interest. I could have read every guidebook there is about London, but now that I live there I have so many questions that can only be answered by experience. Curiosity, the desire to learn more about something, is a powerful tool for exercising the mind.

Courage.

Travel has made me a more courageous person by exposing me to challenges away from the safety net of home. When you can't lean on others for help because they are thousands of miles away, you are forced to face fears and solve problems on your own. In other words, travellers learn how to take risks. I asked some of my well-travelled friends if travel has made them more courageous. "I think it has, but I've definitely struggled with anxiety and doubts along the way... In the end, I'm really glad I took the risks and had the experiences." The risks and experiences powered by courage are as trivial as eating black risotto (a dish made with cuttlefish ink), as trying as overcoming language barriers, and as life-altering as pushing through social anxieties.

Consciousness.

It seems like every other week, my Facebook feed is filled with another awareness campaign. Thanks to social media, lots more people are educated on topics ranging from advertising's effects on body image to the importance for women to get regular mammograms. Personally, however, I must say that an online campaign can never compare to experience. I found that helping a friend struggling with anorexia and seeing a loved one blindsided by breast cancer made me much more conscious of the aforementioned causes.

Sitting on a park bench in Istanbul, my husband and I noticed two little girls wearing dirt-coated dresses playing in a fountain. They saw me taking a photograph of a statue and mimed that they wanted me to take a picture of them; the girls grabbed at me, my camera, my glasses, and when I resisted they began asking for money. I apologetically declined. Later, when my husband and I started walking away, we looked back towards the fountain and saw the little girls were playing again - one posed and the other pretended to take a photo. I decided to return to give each girl a lira and let them each strike a pose for my DSLR. My nieces probably play the same game with their mom's iPhone.

After my experience with the child beggars, I did some research and learned about the "beggar mafia." If you've seen the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire, you may be familiar with the horrific conditions these children endure. Ferhat Şahin, vice chairman of the Children of Hope Association and former child beggar, said, “Donors should not give anything to child beggars -- neither money nor something to eat because it urges those who use children as a means of making a living to send more children onto the streets. It urges them to believe that children are an easy way to earn money." My experience in Istanbul made me more aware of an issue. Consciousness may seem insignificant compared to action, but the deep understanding we earn from experience impacts our every decision. President Eisenhower's vision for the People to People program was to create global citizens who seek understanding. He believed this consciousness would break down barriers and promote peace.

TLDR

Why travel?

Travel to become smarter. Active minds are fuelled by curiosity.

Travel to achieve more. Bold choices are fuelled by courage.

Travel to make the world a better place. Peace is fuelled by understanding.

14-year-old me in Sydney, Australia. 2005.

23-year-old me in Rome, Italy. 2014.

Oh, hey!

I think most bloggers apologise for posting infrequently but I've realised the only time I feel bad not writing is when I haven't updated my family in a while. How could I tell the world something, when I haven't told my grandmother yet? Well, yesterday I sent her a long overdue email as I sat on a bench behind Kirch Enge so today is the day I begin blogging again!

I'm presently bundled in a comfy wool blanket sitting outside our hotel room on a patio overlooking a pretty garden. Perhaps my favourite part of travelling is seeing all the neat flowers so, in my mind, this is a deluxe arrangement (not to mention I'm in Zürich, Switzerland with nothing to do but write, wander, and take photos). Kevin is at Google Zürich for training all week so I am tagging along and exploring more of Europe.

After arriving at our hotel Sunday evening, we practised Kev's route to work (a tradition we started in Boulder, then continued in NYC and London). We had dinner at Rüsterei, a neat restaurant converted from an old paper factory. Yesterday, he started training and I grabbed my camera and headed for the nearest park - Arboretum. On the way to the park, I found myself distracted by the Swiss architecture and, again, the flowers. Also, in the middle of a neighbourhood (between house lots typical of an American subdivision) I found a small vineyard! My roundabout route lead me to the aforementioned church where I sat and wrote some emails. As I explored the area (I did eventually make it to the park), it started raining. I continued walking for a few hours and by the time I made it back to the hotel, the rain had soaked through my poor Sperry's.

Alas, my wool blanket cannot defend me from the chilly Swiss air anymore so this is goodnight!

Swiss vineyard in the middle of a subdivision -
now, that's my kind of neighbourhood! :)

Listening: "Stand By Me" by Otis Redding on Pandora's Jack Johnson Radio

Reading: Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

Q for readers: What book are you reading right now?

Settling in

80% of my non-sleeping time in London I have been warming my hands with a cup of tea. Right now, I'm cuddled under my Ball State DoT&D blanket listening to Spotify's Top Tracks in UK playlist. Taylor Swift. One thing is clear to me. The United States' number one export is entertainment. Our culture is everywhere. Lol... hobby majors, am I right?

I explored Covent Garden today and found a few gyms. For now, we're living in this trendy area. One of the gyms offers Rave Yoga and [Playboy] Bunny Bootcamp. I can dig it, but I'm learning trendy is synonymous with pricey. I'll probably stick with something a bit simpler and less cave-like. There aren't many gyms above ground, but I found one called Jubilee Hall. It smelled like curry though and I still haven't decided what to think about that.

We celebrated my birthday last night by seeing Evita at the Dominion Theatre. I still remember seeing the movie for the first time in Mr. Van Der Aa's Spanish class, then making Kevin watch it over and over again all throughout high school. I want to see it again live because this particular performance was good, but not great. Ché, in particular, struggled. I've gotta say it was so much fun to go out and see a show! Kevin's second gift to me is dinner and another show Saturday night. We're seeing Les Misérables!

Where in the world are the Barlows?

Later today, Mr. Kevin Barlow and I (Ms. Jessica Barlow) begin our first big adventure as newlyweds - our honeymoon! Thanks to many of our gracious wedding guests (and wedding shower guests), we are going on the journey of our dreams. It will be equal parts relaxation and exploration. In case you're worried (Mom) or curious (Dad), below is our itinerary so you can figure out where we are!

Sunday, August 24th
Fly from Indianapolis to Washington D.C. to London

Monday, August 25th
Fly from London to Rome

Tuesday, August 26th
Rome, Italy

Wednesday, August 27th
Rome, Italy

Thursday, August 28th
Rome, Italy

Friday, August 29th
Embarkation*
Rome, Italy (from Civitavecchia)

Saturday, August 30th
At Sea

Sunday, August 31st
Corfu, Greece

Monday, September 1st
Kotor, Montenegro

Tuesday, September 2nd
Dubrovnik, Croatia

Wednesday, September 3rd
At Sea

Thursday, September 4th
Venice, Italy

Friday, September 5th
Venice, Italy

Saturday, September 6th
At Sea

Sunday, September 7th
Korcula, Croatia

Monday, September 8th
At Sea

Tuesday, September 9th
Heraklion, Crete

Wednesday, September 10th
Rhodes, Greece

Thursday, September 11th
Ephesus, Turkey (from Kusadasi)

Friday, September 12th
Disembarkation*
Athens, Greece (from Piraeus)

Saturday, September 13th
Athens, Greece

Sunday, September 14th
Fly from Athens to Istanbul

Monday, September 15th
Istanbul, Turkey

Tuesday, September 16th
Istanbul, Turkey

Wednesday, September 17th
Fly from Istanbul to London
Move-in to our first place in London**

*From 8/29 to 9/12, we will be traveling on the Cunard cruise ship Queen Elizabeth
**Kev's employer (Google) is housing us in Covent Garden for two months - we'll be moving to our own place sometime in November

If you need to contact me or Kevin before 9/17, please use email!

My Whirlwind of a Wedding

Whirlwind: (n) something that involves many quickly changing events, feelings, etc.

Thanks Merriam-Webster Online!

The most vivid memory I have from my wedding day is the euphoric rush I felt walking hand-in-hand with my new husband after sealing our vows with a kiss. "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" lifted our guests from their seats and I couldn't contain my smile. We arrived to the side of the stairs and embraced until we were joined by the happiest of hugs from our entire wedding party. My wedding was an absolute whirlwind of love and friendship; it was the best day of my life so far. I'm sure I will recap some other precious memories I have from that day, but I'd like to keep this one short and simple. A BIG thank you to everyone who joined us for our whirlwind - your energy and love on August 8th, 2014 will fuel us as we journey forward on our next adventure!

Cheers to two years!

About two years ago, I was at Teach For America Induction transitioning to life as a 2012 Corps Member. At the time, I knew very little about Indianapolis. I'm happy to report I learned a lot and I learned it quickly. Indy will forever be a home to me; the school where I spent my two years teaching - T.C. Howe - made this possible because that's where I met my family. My kids, my colleagues, even my bosses challenged me every single day and I am a better person because of it. How could you not feel at home in a place where you've grown so much? For my first entry, I'd like to share an excerpt from the letter I wrote to my Student Publications class at the end of this semester. These are ten lessons I learned from my students (and colleagues).

1. Staying mad does no good for anyone – not even you
2. Be the person who is too happy, too energetic, too smiley (it is better than the alternative)
3. Laugh at yourself – not others – and do not worry so much when folks laugh at you
4. Always give more than you get
5. Listening is the key to any good relationship (people just want to be heard)
6. Own up to your weaknesses – they have already beaten you if you cannot even admit they need to be conquered
7. Sometimes, enjoy the beauty of silence
8. Sometimes, roll the windows down, turn the music up, and ugly cry (happy or sad tears)
9. Do not silence yourself – there are already so many idiots trying to silence you – do not help them
10. Do the most

My 2012-2013 English Language Arts 9 Honors class.